Today we are kicking off a series of 2020 Back to Work Tips with the first from eBay VP Rob Hattrell. You can read a longer welcome to 2020 message from Rob here and below are his top back to work tips to focus on the year ahead:
1. Be agile
The UK retail landscape is changing fast and it’s more important in 2020 than ever to be nimble and to stay in touch with changing consumer habits. For businesses, this means spotting trends, moving fast and adapting your supply chain. I believe that small and medium sized businesses are at a huge advantage in this area. Without the restrictions imposed by corporate governance structures, SMEs have the agility to respond to the market with success.
2. Be unique
Do something different. Be that a unique product, price or business model. eBay is a shop window to 179 million people worldwide – that reach is unparalleled and provides a huge opportunity to seize on the demand for British, locally-sourced and created goods and the growing desire from consumers to buy from small businesses.
3. Be global
Expand to other markets. eBay gives sellers access to international customers with ease through our Global Shipping Programme, and it works – 90% of the UK’s eBay sellers sell internationally and export sales have grown more than 25% in the past five years. If you haven’t taken the step, why not? With no additional fees, your business will benefit from millions of potential buyers. Find out more about selling internationally on eBay here.
4. Be customer focused
As everyone knows, buyers want speed, certainty and responsiveness. Delivering great service for your buyers day-in-day-out is key.
5. Be focused on the basics
It sounds simple, but optimising your listings and keeping your eBay store up to date is crucial for attracting more customers. Take advantage of the wide range of tools eBay has to offer. From Multi-buy listings to the Terapeak research tool, eBay sellers have access to a whole range of products ultimately designed to help you generate sales and make the most out of the platform. Adopting Item Specifics and using Promoted Listings is a great way to help boost your items in the search, making it easier for buyers to find your products.
6 Responses
Perhaps you should focus on running your business properly, rather than telling me how to run mine!
I have now closed my ebay shop after nearly 10 years, feedback of 100% for the majority of it, lowest 99.9%, because ebay have bought in this sponsored mallarkey, (more money for ebay,less for us, just trying to survive), no way was i giving you anymore money , than i already did, i have had to call it a day, not my choice, but there you go, good luck with your chinese sellers and appalling feedback.
We can’t expect constructive ideas from people who don’t know what they are doing 🙁
They treat eBay like any other business – but eBay is unique in every aspect – and also can’t / shouldn’t be compared to / based on Amazon – but, unfortunately, they still don’t understand this 🙁
I sell on eBay for 10+ years – I can’t remember ANYTHING that they’ve done properly – either idea or execution – or both – were tragic 🙁
Rob , i am ebay seller and i just want to recommend you must have your own payment method ASAP .BECAUSE PayPal doing unjustice with ebay sellers holding their money long .
Adopting Item Specifics and using Promoted Listings is a great way to help boost your items in the search, making it easier for buyers to find your products.’
Rob also said but it wasn’t printed: ‘Because we’ve made it harder for the same buyers to find your products, so now we want you to do more work and pay us say another 5% of your margin, for buyers to find them. Aren’t we clever!’